Participants will receive a pre-assessment form with questions related to diversity topics. 

Lead Facilitator:

Dr. Suzette Garay is a third generational Latina(x) from South America, Nicaragua and a third generational family member who was born D/deaf.  Her major areas of studies are Special Education with an emphasis on Deafness and Learning Disabilities, School Psychology, and mentoring/coaching of Interpreters.  She is currently a retired Educational Psychologist and teaches diversity courses and American Sign Language (ASL) courses as an adjunct instructor with several colleges online.  She also co-owns a private practice working with families, individuals, and private business about interpreting, accessibility, diversity, and advocacy with diverse DHHDB consumers and members of the LGBTQ communities. Dr. Garay has over 25+ years of direct teaching, evaluating, mentoring with Special education students, ASL/Interpreter students, educational/working interpreters, and/or with community-based businesses who use American Sign Language for communicating with their DHHDB consumers.  She also has invaluable personal experience and unconventional success teaching, evaluating, and mentoring with BIPOC individuals and/or consumers from underprivileged socio-economic backgrounds.  When not on the motivational speaking circuit, she enjoys working with families and very young children teaching them how to utilize American Sign Language with preverbal babies.  Dr. Garay can be reached at www.thediversityacademy.com.

Favorite Quote: "You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right." Rosa Parks

Panelist Bios:

Dr. Melanie McKay-Cody is a Cherokee Deaf and earned her doctoral degree in linguistic and socio-cultural anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. She has studied critically-endangered indigenous sign languages in North America since 1994 and helps different tribes preserve their tribal signs. She also specialized in Indigenous Deaf studies and interpreter training incorporating Native culture, North American Indian Sign Language and ASL. The Protocol for Sign Language Interpreters working in Native Settings, is a highlighted project created by a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Interpreters. She has been involved in many organizations like Deaf Women of Color, National Deaf People of Color, and recently one of 8 founders established Turtle Island Hand Talk, a national group for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, DeafBlind and hearing Indigenous people.  Currently, she conducts many webinars, training using different Indigenous contents both in academia and social media outlets.

Favorite Quote: "I am in competition with no one. I have no desire to play the game of being better than anyone. I am simply trying to be better than the person I was yesterday."  ~Unknown

Dr. Risa Amacker Shariff, CI/CT earned the first Ph.D. awarded from Gallaudet University in the Critical Studies in the Education of Deaf Learners program. Dr. Shariff has been a nationally certified interpreter (CI and CT)  2003 and was the 6th Black interpreter in the United States to hold both national certification and a doctorate degree. She holds a Master's Degree (Administration and Supervision) and an Educational Specialist Degree (Deaf Education) from Gallaudet University. Dr. Shariff earned her Bachelor's in Secondary English Education (University of New Orleans). Dr. Shariff boasts over two decades in the interpreting field and has 18 years of teaching experience on the secondary and postsecondary levels. Her doctoral dissertation focused on DeafBlind leaders' educational experiences. She has served on the editorial board of the Journal of American Sign Language and Literature and the ASL Honor Society’s Leadership board. Dr. Shariff is a passionate Video Relay Service, freelance and religious interpreter (Apostolic). 

Favorite Quote “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!"-Luke 1:45

Dr. Joseph C. Hill is an Associate Professor in the Department of American Sign Language and Interpreting Education at Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institutes for the Deaf. He was originally from Cincinnati, OH and was raised in the family of deaf and hard-of-hearing siblings, a hard-of-hearing mother, and a hearing father. He was the first black deaf person to earn his doctorate degree in linguistics at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC in 2011. Dr. Hill is one of the co-authors who published the book on the African-American variety of ASL, The Hidden Treasure of Black ASL: Its History and Structure, that discusses the history and language of the African-American Deaf Community from the scholarly and linguistic perspectives. Dr. Hill also published his book in 2012, Language Attitudes in the American Deaf Community. Link: www.josephchill.com

Favorite Quote: "Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." ~Albert Einstein

Dr. Onudeah “Oni” Nicolarakis is an assistant professor at Gallaudet University's Department of Education. She has been an educator for 15 years, having served DDBDDHH and Hearing students ranging in ages from 3 to adulthood, and used multimodal approaches to provide access in academic and social content. Dr. Oni has presented multiple times on topics such as the intersections of race and disability. Currently, her areas of interest are in producing counter narratives of the writing experience for the DDBDDHH community and redirecting attention to the advantages of the intersectional experiences from people within marginalized communities.

Favorite Quote: "It's time to claim our narrative in this world."  Oni's quote for Women's History Month. 

BIPOC PhDs who speak up, write, do research, and/or focus on other inequalities, should ideally not be contested, but they remain so and point towards a wider problem
highlighted by two huge events in 2020 BLM and academic institutions that are currently be
challenged by it that have shown what the lack of acknowledgement of difficult histories and
recognizing the inequalities that exist within society can create. If universities and other hiring workforces truly seek to remain committed to anti-racism, supporting diverse BIPOC PhDs who are like us and welcoming them like us, they must start to recognize the inequalities and gaps within them and create environments to truly support BIPOC PhD students in higher education and beyond. Interpreters who work in the Academia arena have an integral role to play in this
struggle with reducing the ‘gap’ between the ‘them’ and ‘us’ construction and can build
networks that blur these lines through inclusive workforces and curriculums and altering the way
we view inclusive relationships. This webinar will consist of a panel of BIPOC PhD panelist
who will not only be sharing their personal stories, but will also discuss some the lack of
interpreting effectiveness, privilege relationships, and oppressive behaviors that progress into the
PhD level and above both in the workforce or academia arenas.

Educational Objectives: 
1. Participants will learn and identify at least three biases-unconscious or not, that impact
BIPOC at the PhD level both in the workforce or academia arenas. 
2. Participants will analyze how PPO (Power, Privilege and Oppression) affected from their
past trainings which breeds “assumption” of how interpreting for BIPOC PhD
Deaf/hearing scholars might be different.
3. Participants will demonstrate their understandings that address racial issues within
mainstream syllabuses and/or curriculums when interpreting for BIPOC at the PhD levels
and beyond through direct discussions & questions with the BIPOC panelists.
4. Participants will identify several strategies for how to promote the value of working with
BIPOC PhD persons directly with universities and/or workforces to make changes
through practical and systematic solutions.

Participants will receive a Post-Assessment form that will identify their involvement and understanding of diversity topics covered in the webinar. 

Participants will provide feedback via a presenter evaluation form. 

This webinar is being offered for 0.2 PS PPO (Power, Privilege, and Oppression) CEUs: 2 hour  webinar presentation.

Diversity Academy Online provides:

Pre/post assessment questions

Evaluation

You must be a member of Diversity Academy to earn and receive CEUs for each monthly webinar. This webinar is included with membership.